CU bans Indian students for reheating food, students win $200,000 in lawsuit

In September 2025, two Indian students at CU Boulder filed a civil rights lawsuit against the university over racist remarks, and four months later, they won their case. Although they won the case, their academic careers at CU have been forcefully ended due to the events that transpired.

The incident took place on Sept 5, 2023, when Aditya Prakash, the former anthropology doctoral student at CU and plaintiff in the case, was told by a CU staff member not to cook Indian food in the Hale Sciences kitchen microwave because it had a “pungent” smell, citing a rule against food with a “strong odor.” Prakash returned to his desk to eat following the comment and threw away the container. The racist faculty member then proceeded to call an administrator to dispose of the entire trash bag, which only contained the empty container. When Prakash questioned the administrator, she stated that she wanted the office to “[smell] nice” and that “sandwiches” were acceptable, but “curry” was not.

In initial protest to this racist confrontation, Prakash returned two days later with four other students, including Urmi Bhattacheryya, his partner and fellow plaintiff, who all heated Indian food. This time, faculty members “heckled” the students and shut the door to the kitchen, as reported by Prakash. It was following this incident that the students who heated their food were reported to the Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (SCCR) Office for “inciting a riot.”

Bhattacheryya, who was a teaching assistant, invited Prakash to speak during her two recitations for a class on cultural relativism and ethnocentrism, according to the complaint, and was promptly barred from her teaching role when she “went to [her] laptop to access the class roster” and “was locked out” without any communication beforehand.

The chairperson of their department then sent a department-wide email cementing a rule that stated everyone had “to refrain from preparing foods with strong or lingering smells in the main office.” The couple replied, stating it was discrimination, while Bhattacheryya said she would not teach until the bigoted policy was changed.

On Sept 12, Prakash was called into a meeting with three members of his Ph.D. advisory committee, including one who taught the class Bhattacheryya had been removed from, where they told him the racist staff member “felt physically threatened by him during the interaction,” as reported by CU Independent. During this meeting, his committee “wouldn’t let him speak,” and his mention of the incident in Bhattacheryya’s classes was a “big problem.” The following day, everyone was barred from heating food in the kitchen.

Following these events, the couple filed complaints through CU’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance (OIEC) on Sept 16, but nothing ever came of it. Two CU deans reached out to the couple individually to resolve the matter two days later, and after discussions, decided on the terms that Hale Sciences “repeal of the food policy, dismissal of the complaint labeling Mr. Prakash a threat, and [issue] an apology.” Despite OIEC supporting the terms, the department did not agree, and Prakash took a more formal route, leading to their Ph.D. advisory committee resigning on Jan 10, 2024, and being replaced with professors outside of their department.

The students received negative teaching assistant evaluations from the professors who resigned, while lying about their attendance. Prakash’s student status was downgraded because he did not meet the deadline for his master’s thesis due to the sudden change in professors.

Almost a year after the racist event, which started the ordeal, Bhattacheryya sent an email to the deans who had tried helping, and over a Zoom meeting on Sept 18, 2024, acknowledged the racism at play, pledging to assist in finding funding and to help transfer doctoral programs. The couple applied to the Geology and Critical Media Practices, but were denied. Bhattacheryya has echoed what many students on the CU campus feel, claiming that the progressive view CU prides itself on is akin to an “atmosphere of gaslighting and them wanting you to stay in this position of subjugation and not speaking out….”

The couple received performance evaluations again in June 2025, which took away their teaching assistant abilities and revoked funding, meaning they would have to pay $30,000 in fees as international students. Loss of teaching assistant status also meant they lost their jobs. Three months later, on Sept 5, 2025, the couple filed the lawsuit.

Their lawsuit was settled later that year, in November 2025. CU Boulder agreed to pay the couple $200,000 while also granting them master’s degrees. Unfortunately, the settlement also included the stipulation that the couple could not attend or work at the school ever again. The two have since moved back to India, but believe, “If this is the path [they] have to walk, then so be it. [Their] people should see a better day,” as Prakash stated in an interview with The Independent.

While racism on the CU campus, and perpetuated by CU staff, is nothing new, some see this as a new low. The complete barring of the couple from studying and teaching at the university echoes the firing of former professor and American Indian Movement member Ward Churchill, but the dispute over Indian food is a very is a different matter entirely.